[Published here February 15, 2020]
Baghdad (AFP) – Irked by Iraq’s close ties to neighbouring Iran, Washington has begun following through on threats to squeeze Baghdad’s fragile economy with delays to crucial cash deliveries and shortened sanctions waivers.
[Published here February 7, 2020]
Baghdad (AFP) – They once stood side by side against tear gas and bullets, protesting together against Iraq’s government. But after cleric Moqtada Sadr’s followers switched sides, young activists feel vulnerable and betrayed.
“We used to distribute food to their protest tents in the first days of the demonstrations — and this is how they treat us?” said Mona, a medic and activist in Baghdad.
[Published here February 3, 2020]
Baghdad (AFP) – Sporting their signature blue caps, the men marched triumphantly through Baghdad’s protest camp. The die-hard followers of firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr were back in Tahrir Square, and they wanted everyone to know it.
[Written with Damon Wake in Brussels and published here January 29, 2020]
Baghdad (AFP) – Iraq is considering a larger role for NATO at the expense of the US-led coalition, Iraqi and Western officials told AFP, after an American drone strike on Baghdad that sparked outrage.
[Published here on January 15, 2020]
Ain al-Asad Air Base (Iraq) (AFP) – Moments after volleys of Iranian missiles began to batter Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase, US soldiers at the desert facility lost contact with their ultra-powerful — and expensive — eyes in the sky.
[Published here on January 14, 2020]
Waves of ballistic missiles, soldiers hunkered down in bunkers for hours, intense shock waves — a top US commander said he reacted to Iran’s unprecedented attack against an Iraqi base with “disbelief”.
[Published here on January 14, 2020]
Ain al-Asad Air Base (Iraq) (AFP) – A timeline of last week’s Iranian missile attack against the Ain Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, as seen through the eyes of some of the 1,500 US soldiers deployed there.
